Farmer Writes: repairs in wake of storm Darragh

Storm Darragh has been and gone, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

Thankfully, we had no major incidents, but, unfortunately, there were enough minor ones that will easily take a day or two to fix.

One of my farmyards has an eight-foot-high wooden palisade fence around it, of which a couple of sections are now on the ground. Now the fence has been up for I think 18 years at this stage, so I suppose it’s no shame to see it gone.

One section did blow down previously in a storm a few years back, but that time it was just because the screws that were used were a little on the short side and the fence section just separated from the posts.

Fixing it was just a matter of setting it back into position and screwing it back on with longer screws. However, this time I think some of the posts have broken, so it's just not going to be as easy a fix.

The kango and cement mixer will unfortunately have to come out.

Sky light

Secondly, there is a sky light blown off my 51-year-old cattle shed. I’ve been patching this roof for years, trying to avoid the cost of a new one, but every year that goes by just brings me closer to having to bite the bullet.

I think there is one original sky light left and with all its patching, the roof is still not in that bad of shape.

It’s unbelievable how strong the tin was back then, compared with the modern equivalent. It's only corroded where two sheets overlap and moisture was able to be trapped between them.

Anyway, hopefully the cost of a new skylight will get me away for another year or two, fingers crossed.

The next and possibly the most notable piece of destruction happened to the kid’s playhouse. The structure, which is quite a significant piece of real estate in its own right, no longer has a veranda.

Upset

This has caused quite a bit of upset among certain people in the Strain household. Mainly because the playhouse was repurposed a few years ago and with considerable renovations and no expense spared, was turned into a home for our two cats, Bubble and Squeak.

Now how the cats are going to navigate daily life without a veranda is quite frankly at this moment beyond me.

They are in fairness lucky to still have a roof, never mind a veranda, as it was beginning to lift this morning as well when we first went out.

Myself and my better half were out in the thick of it, gathering ropes and lunge ropes so that we could try to keep the roof from blowing off.

We managed to get a half tonne bag of gravel strategically placed on one side of the house, a heavy wooden electric cable reel on the other and got two ropes thrown over the roof and tied to the aforementioned items at each side.

Hopefully, that will hold things together long enough to allow us to get the builders back.